The Bone Wall by D. Wallace Peach

Author:D. Wallace Peach [Peach, D. Wallace]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fantasy Novel
Publisher: D. Wallace Peach
Published: 2015-02-09T06:00:00+00:00

19

~Rimma~

My sister is fucking Priest. She hasn’t told me so, but she doesn’t need to; it’s so stunningly obvious. She no longer shares my bed, has bubbles in her head instead of brains, and smells like sex. I suppose I don’t blame her; he’s handsome and powerful. She could do a whole world worse. Speaking for myself, I wouldn’t be caught dead in a man’s arms, not without good reason, not without something pretty fucking valuable in return.

The wall suits me better than the bed, a loaded crossbow cradled in my arms.

Of course, I’m bored to epic proportions, standing in the crunchy snow and icy wind, staring at gray rocks, the occasional bird inspecting a seed. The few raids we’ve suffered have all happened farther up the trail on the steads outside our gates. By the time we get word, the damage is long done: stores sacked, livestock gone, a rape or two committed, broken bones and a call for stitches.

“We need patrols,” I mutter for the hundredth time.

“That’s the hundredth time you’ve said that,” Chantri complains in exasperation.

“And we’ll get that when?” I ask. “When children are stolen? When someone ends up with his throat cut? What’s the Council waiting for?”

“We don’t have the men and women to spare,” she explains, unnecessarily, since I’ve heard it all before. “The Colony needs every able hand in the fields.”

“It’s the middle of fucking winter, Chantri.”

She shrugs her response. Like she said, it’s only the hundredth time I’ve carped about it.

“We leave one man on the gate to bar the door,” I suggest.

“Someone save me,” she groans and drops her head, earning a punch to her shoulder. “Ow.”

“Five of us patrol,” I persist. “No additional bodies required. We might actually get to kill a Biter.”

“Stop calling them Biters,” Chantri nags. “It’s offensive.”

“Insulting,” Tannis says from further down the wall beside Keyon. “I haven’t eaten a good woman in ages.”

Chantri snorts a wet wad of snot to her upper lip and wipes it off on her sleeve. I can’t help grinning, and Keyon’s eyes nearly bug from his head, at the comment or snot, I’m not sure.

“What’s so funny up there?” Lucky calls up. He’s manning the door while Konnard sees to our lone horse.

“Tannis and sex in the same sentence,” Chantri shouts down with a laugh. “I should know.”

“You and Tannis?” I ask, shocked.

“Why not?” Chantri smirks at me as if I’m daft. “You think I’m hauling a bow and blades around all day in my battle gear? I’m human, and he’s not bad for an old bull.”

“Old?” Tannis barks. Keyon chuckles behind him, earning a swat.

“Old as in older than me,” Chantri explains loudly and rolls her blue eyes.

“Aren’t you afraid of getting pregnant?” I quietly ask, aware that I don’t know this woman as well as I thought I did. She’s the closest I have to an ally, and at the moment, she’s no more familiar than a stranger.

“Afraid?” She furrows her brow in disbelief and studies my face as if she too just discovered a stranger on the wall.

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